Former Rep. Jim Ramstad on Bin Laden Death

Jim Ramstad served Minnesota's 3rd congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1991 until retiring in 2009. Ramstad, who lives in Minnetonka and is now a resident fellow at the Harvard Institute of Politics, spoke briefly with Minnetonka Patch on Monday about the death of Osama bin Laden. 

Patch: What are your thoughts on the death of bin Laden?:

Ramstad: Justice has been served. It’s a great day for freedom and justice loving people everywhere. President Obama gave a wonderful speech—one for the history books.

You are close with the family of Gordon Aamoth, the Wayzata-native who lost his life in the attack on the World Trade Center. You have also worked with the family of Bloomington native, Tom Burnett, Jr. who was a passenger on hijacked United Flight 93 on 9/11. What do you think bin Laden's death means for those families ?

We go way back. They were pleased to see justice served, (but) nothing will ever heal the holes in their hearts. It's like what President Obama said in his speech, that the worst images are those that were unseen to the world. For the Aamoth and Burnett families, the tragedies are the empty seats at their dinner tables, where Tom and Gordy won't sit. Obviously they will never come back. 

What is your overall take from this?

This certainly brought me back to 2001. I will never forget that night...as the sun was going down, members of Congress all gathered and sang God Bless America. It was the most unity I saw in my 18 years of service in Congress—unfortunately that unity didn’t last long, at least politically...We need to be united, especially in the war on terror. I hope for more unity, more bipartisanship. (Also), we have to remain ever-vigilant. I don’t have any doubt that al-Qaida, or some other terrorist, will fill the void left by bin Laden and intensify the attacks against us.